The invention relates to laced athletic shoes.
Shoes for use during athletics must provide positive support for the athlete, at times during rapid and sudden changes of direction, and also be of light weight construction to minimize fatigue. These requirements operate at cross purposes, as the lighter weight fabrics typically used in athletic shoe uppers cannot provide adequate support. Thus during motion, the wearer's foot tends to slide about in the shoe upper, above the sole.
In laced shoes, the laces may be pulled tightly to locally draw the shoe about the wearer's foot, but transverse movement of the heel and toe portions of the foot in the shoe is typically not adequately restricted. Rigid external shoe counters have been provided in athletic shoes in attempts to reduce transverse movement of the wearer's heel, e.g., as shown in Riddell U.S. Pat. No. 2,244,504; in Bowerman, U.S. Pat. No. 2,255,877; and in Norton et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,929. Axial movement also occurs, particularly if the wearer's heel is not held against the rear of the upper when the laces are tightened.
Furthermore, the laces quickly become loosened during athletic activity.
Athletes in some sports have addressed this problem by using overly long shoelaces with the ends wrapped about the shoe, e.g., around the ankle or beneath the sole, to extend the localized effect of the laces to more tightly secure the shoe to the foot in the lace area. A number of patents show shoes with grommets, loops or extra straps to provide this effect, e.g., Hansen U.S. Pat. No. 859,382; Manss U.S. Pat. No. 752,173; Morgan, Jr., et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,806,300; Kunzli U.S. Pat. No. 3,138,880; and Larsen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,245,408.